Opening Day Insight

[walk213]

Hunted NE on Friday. We had success in our first public field. Saw an equal amount of hens and roosters. Killed 3 of the 10 roosters. Echo was sharp and did a great retrieve beyond a barbed wire fence. We did not witness a bird in the next 4 public fields. Most of the corn around the fields had not been harvested because of the weather. We hit some private land before the end of the day. All of the corn was up so we could not hunt it. Ironically, I flushed 2 groups of grouse with my truck.

We hit a public field in Yuma for the Colorado opener. We were the first truck at the field at 5:15 am. Five more followed. We flushed a dozen hens on our walk. Roosters were cackling everywhere, but were running. Unfortunately, we shoved most of them to private. Echo and I watched 15 fly over a fence. We hunted a few more public fields, but to no a avail. Echo found me 3 hens but no roosters. We saw more roosters walking the roads than in the fields. Most of the public we walked was surrounded by uncut corn. One final fact: there were a ton of hunters in the fields. More than I have ever seen. Hope everyone was more successful than me.

Off to some prime land next weekend. Hopefully the corn is down and the action heats up.

No video of the hunt as my battery died before the birds flew. Here is a picture.

http://www.huntfishgolfwork.com/pictures/

 

[Nelly32]

Agreed on the number of hunters. I hunted Julesburg with my 3 sons and I have never seen so many hunters in the field. Every WIA was covered by at least one truckful of hunters and there were trucks pulling into WIA as the previous truck pulled out.

The uncut corn really limited success IMO. Our first stop of the day was a large CRP swath that I’ve hunted before. I knew it was next to corn and had winter wheat on the other side. I was excited about hunting it, but when we pulled up at 5:25am, I could see the corn still uncut in the headlights. We kicked up one hen within 5 seconds of entering the field, and then didn’t see or hear another bird in the field - I’m sure they were hanging out in the corn.

Hunted a wheat field next with plenty of grass/brush/weeds between the rows. We kicked up 3 roosters and 2 hens. Put down 2 of the roosters and the 3rd made it away safely. Also saw one rooster leave the field about 200 yards ahead of us. That was it for the whole day. We hunted two other CRP fields without finding another bird. The previously mentioned gaggle of hunters I’m sure covered it before we were there.

Not a bad day, but definitely less action than we hoped for. My muensterlander did a respectable job with a couple points, and found each of the 2 downed roosters before they could sneak off and die somewhere else.

 

[JHoch00]

This weekend was very rough in the southeast corner. Bird numbers way down, habitat bit worse and hunter numbers way up. Report seemed the same from all people we talked to. Few had found quail, but nothing like we expected per the reports. We didnt see a pheasant all day driving the roads.

Late morning a cpw officer stopped to check us and i missed my one chance at a rooster as he watched. He commented "Darn, i thought i was going to finally be able to check a bird today."

Wia access sections were good cover, but not seeing overall as much good private "sanctuary" habitat as i seem to recall. Not sure what im going to do the rest of the year now.

But as i always say, give me sunrise and exercise and im happy. Throw in a few good friends, family and dogs and it is a great day out, birds or no.

 

[colorado_bailey]

I hunted solo with my GSP near Vona, Colorado. I have access to private property, mostly CRP surrounded by corn. Saturday morning was foggy, damp, high 30's at lawful hunting time. The fields we are hunting are HUGE, 1/2 x 1/2 mile, so doing it solo is not easy. We managed to find 3 hens in the first field, good, solid points. No roosters.
We hunted another field not far away from the first field, same report, all hens. I didn't even see a rooster flush or in the ditches along side of the road. We were done by 1130am and our way home.

I went back out to the same area on Sunday morning, dog went on point immediately upon entering the field, hen. I wanted to be frustrated, but it's hard to feel that way watching good dog work and being out hunting. I was invited to hunt another field toward Seibert, so I headed over to meet a group of 6 hunters. We hunted another HUGE CRP field, 1 mile x 1 mile in size. We ended up putting up close to 12 birds, 4 roosters (2 shot) and 8 hens. All roosters were shot by others. My pup had several strong points for me, all hens. At this point it was getting warm and conditions were dry.
I had a great weekend, didn't fire a shot. However my idea of success has changed as I've gotten older.....

 

[EddieMc]

Saturday I started by myself since my son had come down with the crud and a 102 fever. The first field I hit was a WIA CRP and has private land all around that I have permission to hunt on. I worked all the CRP without seeing anything and then came to the end of the WIA and the next field was standing corn. Two steps into the corn and my golden flushed a rooster which I completely flubbed and shot a couple of holes in the air. After that the birds were getting up out of range most of the time but over the next hour and a half I managed to down three rooster for my first ever limit. George retrieved every one flawlessly and even though Ella didn't get to point the roosters she held three points on hens that held tight. If the birds are running Ella will not point but she stays in range and flushes.
My buddy was meeting me in Kit Carson at 9:30 so I worked my way back to the truck letting the dogs work the fence row and right before we got back to the truck Ella put up 3 hens and was very proud of herself. I picked up my buddy and we went to another WIA that had standing corn and we immediately started jumping birds. My buddy who normally is a good shot burned through a box of shells with two birds down and we could not find them and the rest were misses. After working that field to the end we started driving around looking for other places and that is how we finished the day, I had a limit and he had a lot of missed opportunities. All in all Saturday was the best day of pheasant hunting that I have ever experienced, during the whole day we saw upwards of 100 pheasants and the dogs worked exactly like I wanted them to.View attachment 7711View attachment 7712View attachment 7713View attachment 7714

 

[smdmz]

Hunted Sunday and in 5 years of hunting CO I've never seen so many hunters. Every WIA I drove past was occupied, with the first 3 I was targeting occupied as well. Eventually knocked down 2 roosters and missed a 3rd in just a half day hunting before calling it a day. Two thoughts: 1) Saw the most birds I've seen in a single day in CO. 2) Like others on this thread we found a good bit of standing corn (over half the Corners plots) in Yuma County. I talked to a couple farmers and they said they just started taking it down late in the week.